ABOUT HOUR CHILDREN

Hour Children’s mission is to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children successfully rejoin the community, reunify with their families, and build healthy, independent, and secure lives. To accomplish this, Hour Children provides compassionate and comprehensive services and encourages all to live and interact with dignity and respect. Hour Children’s vision is to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration.

HOUR CHILDREN STORY

Hour Children began in 1986 when Sister Tesa Fitzgerald (Sister Tesa) opened the doors of St. Rita’s convent—now known as My Mother’s House—to children with incarcerated mothers. Sr. Tesa did not plan to find her life’s work among women and children impacted by incarceration. “It was an epiphany for me. I put myself in their shoes and couldn’t imagine what the children must be feeling when their mothers were taken from them.”

Since then, Hour Children has evolved into a leading provider of prison- and community-based services for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children. Hour Children was named to acknowledge the important hours that shape the life of a child with an incarcerated mother – the hour of their mother’s arrest, the hour of their visit, and the more hopeful hour of reunification. Today, Hour Children provides services to more than 5000, families annually, helping formerly incarcerated women reunify with their children, successfully rejoin the community, and build healthy, independent lives.

Hour Children is recognized as one of the first Platinum-level participants at GuideStar Exchange, and is one of the 51 organizations receiving a perfect score in the latest ratings from Charity Navigator.

HOUR CHILDREN PROGRAMS

Hour Children is a leading provider of both prison-based and community programs that support currently and previously incarcerated women and their families as they work to transform their lives and achieve self-sufficiency.

Supportive Housing for Women and Their Children

Hour Children Centers in Bedford Hills and Taconic Prisons

The Nursery at Bedford Hills

Hour Working Women Re-entry Program

Rikers Outreach Program

Hour Friend in Deed Mentoring Program

Hour Early Learning Program

Hour After-School Club

Hour Community Food Pantry

Mental Health Services

Hour Teen Scene

Hour Thrift Shops

Critical funds raised will benefit Hour Children, a nonprofit organization
improving the lives of women and children for 30 years.